You can learn a lot from a rat -- especially if the subject is medical cannabis.
According to a just-published study from the University of Milan -- you didn't actually think medicinal marijuana research took place in this country, did you? -- the administration of whole-plant cannabis extracts provides superior pain relief compared to the administration of the plant's isolated components (such as THC) in an animal model of neuropathic pain.
"[T]he use of a standardized extract of Cannabis sativa ... evoked a total relief of thermal hyperalgesia, in an experimental model of neuropathic pain, ... ameliorating the effect of single cannabinoids," investigators reported. "Collectively, these findings strongly support the idea that the combination of cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid compounds, as present in [plant-derived] extracts, provide significant [therapeutic] advantages ... compared with pure cannabinoids alone."
Ironically, US lawmakers and bureaucrats have long argued just the opposite -- maintaining that the therapeutic use of the plant should remain illegal, but that its "active ingredients ... could be isolated and developed into a variety of pharmaceuticals, such as Marinol."
So if rats can deduce that whole cannabis works better as a medicine than a single synthesized molecule, what's stopping our politicians from reaching this same conclusion?
Stupid stupid law....it's insane..
The war on drugs benefits politicians and lobbyists...An old friend once told me, cynically, that even if marijuana was a cure for cancer, it would make no difference. There is too much money to be made by keeping it illegal.
Legalized marijuana and opiates would pretty much save the combined federal, state and county level criminal justice systems something on the order of $100B a year, help defund terrorism and organized crime, and reduce demand for the drugs that represent a real public health hazard. I'd probably add cocaine to that list as well, but not amphetamines.
But as long as the CIA & DEA have there sideline operations and covert budgets hinging on illegal drugs [who else can sell a product, arrest you for buying it, and then resell it?], nothing will change.
And sadly, no one politician in DC has the balls to crusade against this nonsensical legislation and government criminality.
Oh, and for the rightwingnuts who will come along to deny government involvement in drug trafficing, ask yourselves this:
Why is it that every nation we send advisors or our troops [and the CIA] into, the drug production ALWAYS vastly increases? Do you really think that's just incidental?
The US government works against its citizens through drug laws and covert drug trafficing; the longterm GOP-driven goal is to incarcerate as many poor and AA citizens as possible for use as slave labor. if Obama doesn't seriously impact this situation, then he's no better than the rest....
Libertarian said what we put in our bodies, not what we do once 'under the influence'